Aviation
Military /
Brazil
"Widow Maker"
After 77 years, B-26 bomber that crashed in the Amazon during World War II is found by the Army
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Gabriela Ramos
2/7/2022
After 77 years of the fall of one of the bombers most used by the allies in World War II, a Martin B-26 Marauder, the aircraft was found in northern Brazil by soldiers of the Brazilian Army of the 34th Jungle Infantry Battalion, according to the The Traveler page. Three residents of the region helped the military in the operation, which included a three-day walk in the woods until the wreckage of the plane was found.
The search party also found the two Wasp radial engines, one of the eleven M2 Browning .50BMG machine guns and parts of the wing, where the registration number 44-68105 can still be read.
The Martin B-26 Marauder was a medium bomber built during World War II and heavily used by the United States and the United Kingdom. Brazil did not use this type of aircraft, but even so, it often received visits from the bomber, which was bringing supplies, personnel, weapons, or was passing through from the United States to the European or African Theater of the war.
The bomber in question had departed Atkinson Field, currently Cheddi Jagan International Airport, in Guyana, bound for Belém when it crashed near Aldeia Santa Isabel, in Amapá. According to the website Sixtant, the five people aboard the bomber died in the accident.
Sixtant also reports that, of the bombers involved in the Battle of the South Atlantic in 1945, 29 are missing.
The B-26 was involved in several accidents during its trajectory, which is why it received the nickname “Widow Maker”. However, the aircraft demonstrated significant combat performance, especially with regard to ground attack, thanks to its machine guns and bombs, which earned it the position of US Army bomber that was least shot down.
The exact location of the wreckage found was not disclosed, nor information regarding a possible removal of the aircraft. Today there are only three examples of the B-26 on display in the world: one in France and two in the United States, in the state of Ohio.
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Gabriela Ramos
Gabriela is the latest addition to the editorial team of our website, having provided us with her solid background in editing, publishing and photography, and her interest and training in aviation history and historiography. His good taste and common sense and great cleverness and sagacity in the selection of themes and materials greatly enriched our vocabulary and narrative style. Gabriela brought unusual predicates and came to stay, helping to point the way of success of our portal.
   
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